exercise14

Installation and Configuration Using Helm Charts

Currently, we have built our entire application using the commands present in ../exercise13/cluster.sh, which are used to review the installation order of each application and their respective configurations. As seen, the script installs numerous Kubernetes manifests, and while this is a valid approach, it entails a considerable amount of work for the SRE team due to the following reasons:

1. Rigid installation order: The team must follow a strict installation sequence, with no version number to reference, making it difficult to roll back the installation in case of failure.
2. Code duplication: Each manifest may contain similar values across different files, which introduces redundancy and complicates maintenance.

In this context, changing the installation process to use Helm charts can help reduce code duplication and manage all the manifests in a centralized manner, with a specific version number, allowing for better control and order.

Step 1: Installing Helm

The first step is to install Helm, which can be done with the following command:

brew install helm

Step 2: Creating the First Helm Chart

Once Helm is installed, we can proceed to create our first chart with the following commands:

helm create my-sre-app-chart
rm -rf my-sre-app-chart/templates/*

Now let now the most recentr yaml files in to our new chart

mv ../exercise10/storage.yaml ../exercise10/deployment.yaml ../exercise10/otel-collector.yaml ../exercise8/jaeger.yaml ../exercise9/prometheus.yaml ../exercise12/grafana-loki.yaml ./grafana.yaml my-sre-app-chart/templates/

Description of the Files:

1. Chart.yaml: This file contains the description of our new chart. It defines the name, version, and other relevant details.
2. values.yaml: This file defines the default values to be used in the chart. Here, we will add values such as the namespace name and file paths.
3. /templates/*: All the MANIFEST files you want to include in your new chart.

Step 3: Installing and Running the Chart

Once the above configurations are in place, you can proceed to install the chart using the following Helm command:

helm install sre-app ./my-sre-app-chart
helm get manifest sre-app
kugbectl get pods -A

This is the expected output

application     sre-abc-training-app-766c47bdfc-4bmf2              0/1     ContainerCreating   0          18s
application     sre-abc-training-app-766c47bdfc-g99cn              0/1     ContainerCreating   0          18s
application     sre-abc-training-app-766c47bdfc-xfjxs              0/1     ContainerCreating   0          18s
awx             awx-demo-migration-24.6.1-js69h                    0/1     Completed           0          11m
awx             awx-demo-postgres-15-0                             1/1     Running             0          12m
awx             awx-demo-task-676f8784d6-j6b55                     4/4     Running             0          12m
awx             awx-demo-web-6cc8c7cbf6-zk9md                      3/3     Running             0          12m
awx             awx-operator-controller-manager-748c67f659-kf6jh   2/2     Running             0          14m
kube-system     coredns-6f6b679f8f-6h486                           1/1     Running             0          14m
kube-system     etcd-minikube                                      1/1     Running             0          15m
kube-system     kube-apiserver-minikube                            1/1     Running             0          15m
kube-system     kube-controller-manager-minikube                   1/1     Running             0          14m
kube-system     kube-proxy-cfcg5                                   1/1     Running             0          14m
kube-system     kube-scheduler-minikube                            1/1     Running             0          14m
kube-system     storage-provisioner                                1/1     Running             0          14m
monitoring      grafana-deployment-574d97df54-qfr65                0/1     ContainerCreating   0          18s
monitoring      prometheus-deployment-5798446c77-vwsbh             0/1     ContainerCreating   0          18s
opentelemetry   jaeger-67756bcc5b-twpv5                            1/1     Running             0          18s
opentelemetry   loki-844db6f8c7-q5r8q                              1/1     Running             0          18s
opentelemetry   otel-collector-7f64d77765-2b52r                    1/1     Running             0          18s

Same than last time could use, to expose the services

minikube service sre-abc-training-service  -n application
minikube service grafana-service  -n monitoring

Publish a Helm Chart to a Public Repository

This guide explains how to publish a Helm chart to a public repository.

Prerequisites

• Ensure you have Helm installed on your system.
• Confirm that Git and GitHub CLI are installed and configured with the appropriate permissions.
• A GitHub repository to host the Helm chart.

Steps to Publish the Chart

1. Package the Helm Chart:

   helm package ./my-sre-app-chart

   This will create a .tgz file in the current directory.

2. Create an index.yaml File: Use the helm repo index command to generate an index.yaml file:

   helm repo index . --url https://cguillencr.github.io/sre-abc-training/

   This command scans the .tgz files in the directory and creates an index file required for Helm repositories.

3. Enable GitHub Pages:

   • Go to your repository on GitHub.
   • Navigate to Settings > Pages.
   • Set the source to the main branch and the docs directory.
   • Save the changes.

4. Push the Helm Chart Files to GitHub:

   helm package ./my-sre-app-chart
   mkdir -p ../../docs/
   mv my-sre-app-chart-0.1.0.tgz ../../docs/my-sre-app-chart-0.1.0.tgz
   cd ../../docs
   helm repo index ./ --url https://cguillencr.github.io/sre-abc-training
   
   git add ./index.yaml
   git add ./my-sre-app-chart-0.1.0.tgz
   cd ../exercises/exercise14
   git commit --amend -m "Helm configuration"
   git push -u origin main -f

5. Access Your Repository: After enabling GitHub Pages, your Helm repository will be available at:

   https://cguillencr.github.io/sre-abc-training/
   

6. Test the Repository Locally: Add the repository to your local Helm configuration:

   helm repo add sre-abc-lab https://cguillencr.github.io/sre-abc-training/
   #helm repo remove sre-abc-lab

   Verify the repository:

   helm repo update
   helm repo list
   helm search repo sre-abc-lab

8.Install the aplication from the repository: helm install sre-app sre-abc-lab/my-sre-app-chart